Introduction
[1] What was Martin Luther’s position on the visual arts in the life of the Church? The trajectory of this study traces the significant historical developments that led Luther to formulate his position on this matter of deep concern to him, placing it in the context that led to his first theological work of systematic thought on the subject of evangelical ethics. Far from eliminating the significance of the visual arts in the life of the Church, Martin Luther redefined it, embracing its responsible use. His contribution broke though the medieval traditions.
[2] This essay begins with a historical survey of the situation that led Luther to address and defend his position on a subject of vital concern to the Protestant Reformation. It addresses the major German artists who collaborated with him in the cause of the Reformation, and concludes by turning to the contribution of a contemporary Latin American church historian who addresses the discussion with a sweeping historical summary of the situation, leading the reader to present day Latin America. The closing statement of his discussion challenges readers at the heart of the matter. I extend his challenge to address our churches in North America.
Historical Context
[3] On May 26, 1521, Emperor Charles V issued the Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Luther to be a heretic and an outlaw. After this event, when Luther was in isolation at the Wartburg castle under the protection of Frederick the Wise and the reason for his disappearance was entirely suspect, Albrecht Dürer wrote, “Oh God, if Luther is dead who will henceforth explain to us the gospel? What might he not have written for us in the next 10 or 20 years?”1 The impact of Martin Luther personally affected major artists of the period.2
[4] Nine months after Luther’s ‘imprisonment’ at the Wartburg castle, a number of violent events broke out in Wittenberg, one of which was led by Luther’s colleague, Professor Andreas Karlstadt. John W. Cook writes,
January 24, 1522, Karlstadt and others persuaded the Wittenberg City Council to issue a decree for the removal of images and superfluous altars from the local parish church. In the first few weeks of February the townspeople raided the parish church where statues and paintings were demolished and some gravestones were violated.3
[5] Outraged by the news of the iconoclastic revolt in his parish church, Luther left the Wartburg castle and returned to Wittenberg in March of 1522 to confront his followers. Cook details the series of events that took place upon his return to Wittenberg:
With a sense of urgency, Luther preached eight sermons between March 9 and March 16 in 1522 that formulated his “earliest serious and systematic treatment” of religious art.4 Within the next three years he developed his position on the arts in his lectures on Deuteronomy, in a letter to the Christians at Strasbourg, and finally in 1525, in a long essay entitled Against the Heavenly Prophets,5 the most thorough discussion of the topic written by Luther. This sequence of events and the attending publications make it clear that Luther’s teachings concerning the arts were not formulated as part of his direct attack upon Rome, but rather in his personal reaction to the over-zealous attitudes of his followers. His argument, based on scripture and tradition, included personal attacks of other reformation leaders.6
[6] The historical context preceding the wave of iconoclasm and vandalism that continued to erupt in other parts of Europe had its origins in the 14th century abuses of the Roman clergy, such as encouraging pilgrimages to holy sites for the purchase of relics and miraculous images. The Roman clergy advocated this type of collective piety, encouraging the veneration of such images. This situation facilitated an excessively commercial use of religious images.7 A great deal of superstition was generated by the power which the Roman clergy conferred on these images through their consecration.8 Sacred art funded through donations from the pious faithful translated into a proliferation of images which became the pocket exchange for eternal salvation.9
[7] Another practice which served as a powerful incentive for funding religious art was collecting donations for ‘the intercession of the saints.’ Luther denounced this practice entirely. Likewise, he utterly denounced the purchase of religious art as a ‘good work’ in exchange for acquiring merits toward earning eternal salvation. For the Roman clergy, earning the promise of salvation by doing good works also meant financing other things, such as vestments, church bells, altars, monasteries, churches, etc. The Roman church of Luther’s day taught that funding such earthly goods was a quick way to acquire merits toward earning the salvation of the soul.10
[8] In 1517, when Luther protested against the sale of indulgences in the 95 theses he nailed to the door of Wittenberg’s castle church, he established the authority of the Bible. He continued to emphasize that the Word of God expresses God’s will and should not be adjusted to fit church doctrine. “All external means—whether [through] the sale of indulgences or of relics—shall be considered useless for reaching salvation.”11 In his “Sermon on Good Works” Luther demonstrated the meaning of good works from a biblical perspective, explaining the authentic relationship between faith and good works. Contrary to the doctrines of the Roman church of his day, Luther taught that people are not saved by any act of religious devotion. Through a personal awakening led by his in-depth study of The Holy Scriptures, Luther rediscovered the central message of the Gospel. Consequently, he emphasized that Christ saves people by grace through faith alone apart from good works. Eventually Luther turned what had begun as a sermon for a congregation in Wittenberg into the subject of a book, A Treatise on Good Works (1520). Thus, Luther’s first theological work of systematic thought is concerned with evangelical ethics. This work is considered his clearest exposition on the Christian life.
[9] Within this context, grounded on a solid foundation in Christian thought, Luther argued for a proper understanding of religious art. “His teachings encourage images that engage reason about revelation. They are icons for the mind, didactic proclamation…”12 “Luther was not opposed to the image as such, only to the image which is charged with a sense of relic, as [if it were] a venerable treasure.”13 He was the only reformer who accepted religious images, favoring their pedagogical function for the sake of remembering, [but] not for the sake of venerating. Luther explains, “…as long as I do not worship them, but only have them as memorials.”14 After the iconoclastic events of Wittenberg in 1522, he embraced the kind of image-making that serves a teaching function, because to him images complement the Word. He writes,
It is possible for me to hear and bear in mind the story of the Passion of our Lord. But it is impossible for me to hear and bear it in mind without forming mental images of it in my heart. For whether I will or not when I hear of Christ, an image of a man hanging on a cross takes form in my heart just as the reflection of my face naturally appears in the water when I look into it. If it is not a sin, but good to have the image of Christ in my heart, why should it be a sin to have it in my eyes?15
[10] Luther went on to champion the pedagogical function of images, especially through the media of woodcuts and engraving, thus propelling the German tradition of printmaking.16 After 1522 there was an extensive production of prints which served a variety of purposes. On the one hand, Luther used engravings to illustrate The Holy Scriptures; on the other hand, he used them as antipapal propaganda which contained a heavy dose of criticism.17 Prints produced in the service of the Reformation were, above all, an effective tool of pedagogy and propaganda which were designed to represent Luther’s theology and Reformation thought. Printed media such as woodcuts and engravings often accompanied Luther’s writing. The religious and cultural impact of Luther’s printed work, which included books and pamphlets with woodcuts and engravings, was unprecedented. In response to the overwhelming demand for Luther’s illustrated German translation of the Bible, “In the 1530’s a new school of Protestant Bible illustration was active in Wittenberg.”18 Such was the impact of the visual arts during the Reformation. In addition to arguing for an appropriate role for religious art, Luther “prescribed specific works of art for his own purposes.”19 In his introduction to an illustrated prayer book written around that time, Luther writes,
And what harm would there be, if someone were to illustrate the important stories of the entire Bible in their proper order for a small book which might become known as a layman’s Bible? Indeed one cannot bring God’s word and deeds too often to the attention of the common man.20
[11] God’s words and deeds were also brought to the attention of ordinary people through panel paintings and altarpieces which were created for Reformation worship services in Wittenberg. Through works of art such as these, an interpretation of Luther’s theology and Reformation thought was made visible. The major artist in this enterprise was Lucas Cranach the Elder, who was a personal friend of Luther.
German Reformation Artists
[12] Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) was an artist and a leading citizen of the city of Wittenberg. He witnessed and participated in the emergence of the Protestant Reformation. “In 1504 he entered the services of Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony, as a painter.”21 He was on the city council from 1519 to 1549. For three successive terms, between 1537 and 1542, he was mayor of the city of Wittenberg.22 Lucas Cranach came to know Martin Luther when Frederick the Wise commissioned him to paint portraits of the Reformer, so that his name would become familiar to the German people. Most of the portraits we have of Luther were painted by Cranach, who also created woodcuts and copper engravings of the Reformer’s face. Lucas Cranach the Elder was the artist who made Martin Luther’s face known. He was a close friend of Luther and the author of his best portraits. His images of Luther spread quickly throughout the entire European continent, contributing much to the publicity of the Protestant Reformation. Cranach embraced Luther’s cause with conviction. Cook remarks,
His central role in the life of the city and his close relationship to Luther make him a unique figure in the opening years of the Reformation in Germany. Intentionally his art reflected the new theological environment. He and his son, Lucas Cranach the Younger, painted a series of works from 1520 to 1568 that pictured the new theological thinking and thereby created a specifically Reformation iconography.23
[13] The Cranachs, who worshipped at Reformation services in Wittenberg, saw themselves as recipients of the truth and viewed their paintings as an interpretation and proclamation of the Gospel.24 Moreover,
Luther grew close to him [Lucas Cranach the Elder] when they became colleagues in the publication of Luther’s writings and pamphlets, most notably his Small Catechism and German translation of the Bible.25
[14] These publications were illustrated by Cranach’s woodcuts. The first edition of Luther’s German translation of the New Testament, published in 1522, included 22 woodcuts by Cranach. These woodcuts became enormously popular. By the following year Luther had finished translating the first few books of the Old Testament. “In 1524 he designated episodes that he wanted illustrated from the Old Testament.”26 The first edition of Luther’s German translation of the Bible appeared in 1534, with illustrations in color from the workshop of Lucas Cranach. 3,000 copies were originally printed for this first edition of 1534.27 Between 1522 and 1546 there were more than 430 editions of Luther’s German translation of the books of the Bible. During this period more than half a million copies were sold.28 The demand was unprecedented. “The Bible in the German language entirely modified Western Christianity, and was a mirror for translations into other vernacular languages of the continent.”29 Under Luther’s stimulus, woodcuts and engravings became the first mass-media, facilitating the rapid transformation of Western Christianity. Luther’s preference for woodcuts turned this medium into his banner for Reformation propaganda.30 Irving Hexam and Lothar Henry Köpe write,
It should also be noted that the Cranachs were also the first modern advertising experts and masters of propaganda. Without their woodcuts, which vividly illustrate Luther’s work and a host of other Reformation writings, it is doubtful if the Reformation would have made quite the impact it did on Luther’s contemporaries. …It was the Cranachs who took a scholarly dispute, Luther’s posting of his 95 Theses, and gave it national and international importance. Without their work, Luther’s scholarship could easily have ended as unread books gathering dust in a remote German library. Instead, through their meaningful illustrations they turned Luther’s rediscovery of the Bible into a tidal wave which rocked Germany and the world. …To do this, the Cranachs produced the first comic books, which proclaimed the rediscovery of the gospel of grace by Martin Luther and in doing so made the teachings of Luther and the Bible accessible to even the most illiterate peasant.31
[15] Antonio Schimpf adds, “Whether with children’s books or caustic propaganda against the papacy, Lucas Cranach the Elder provided visual representations of Luther’s thought.”32 He contributed to the cause of the Reformation with a great variety of images which he produced through the media of woodcuts, paintings, and copper engravings. His son, Lucas Cranach the Younger, a German renaissance artist, followed in his father’s footsteps with this endeavor. In 1550 he took charge of his father’s painting workshop and continued the work his father had begun in Wittenberg, which was to build a successful enterprise in the service of the Reformation. Cook concludes,
We are fortunate that Luther and Cranach were such close associates, for without that relationship we would be less clear about the forms of this reform. Cranach and his son have given us what appear to be painted sermons, at once confessional, scriptural and deeply theological.33
[16] Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543) was another major German Reformation artist. In 1526 he made two woodcuts that represented the spirit of the Reformation, Christ as the True Light, and The Sale of Indulgences. They reveal a poignant effort to illustrate attacks by Luther against Rome. Without a doubt, he was sympathetic to the Reformation movement begun by Luther, “which called for a return to the Bible and the overthrow of the papacy.”34 It is not surprising, therefore, that Holbein has been described as “the supreme representative of German Reformation art.”35
[17] Albrecht Dürer (1471-1527) was a contemporary of Martin Luther. When Martin Luther was professor of theology at the University of Wittenberg, Dürer came under Luther’s influence.36 “Though Dürer was an artist who could work in a variety of mediums, he realized that woodcuts and engravings made art available to the widest public.”37 Therefore, he learned to master the art of woodcuts and engravings, which he used for illustrating images in the service of the Reformation. Severance et. al. write,
These illustrations were designed to be used by teachers and clergy, but, in a day before widespread literacy, could also be important devotional tools for Christian laymen…[Dürer] devoted almost all of his work to Biblical subjects.38
[18] The creator of the famous Praying Hands was Albrecht Dürer. Praying Hands is an image whose spiritual depth has endured in human consciousness throughout the ages, from the time of Luther to the present time. By means of its subject matter, this image leads us back to the original concern, in connection with Latin America.
Historical and Critical Considerations
[19] How have the visual arts been used as a means to communicate the Gospel throughout the ages, from the beginning of the Reformation to present day Latin America? Dr. Jerónimo José Granados, of Buenos Aires, Argentina, is a Lutheran-Reformed pastor and church historian who addresses this question from a unique perspective. In his article, “Lutero y el arte: una perspectiva latinoamericana” [“Luther and Art: a Latin American Perspective”],39 Granados approaches the subject of Christian art from a broad historical vantage point. In linear fashion, he begins his discussion by addressing the function of art in the early Christian church, followed by that of the church of the Middle Ages and the Rennaissance, leading the reader to the iconoclastic event led by Karlstadt in Wittenberg, through the development of Luther’s position on the visual arts of the Church. Beyond this point, he passes through the Pietist movement and the Enlightenment, extending his survey to encompass the situation in Latin America, where the art of the Counter-Reformation is consolidated in the baroque style, which becomes the papal instrument of propaganda. Following this path, the reader is led to understand that since the beginning of the Roman church’s iconoclasm against indigenous artistic expression, the baroque style has dominated religious art in Latin America, from the time of the conquest of the Americas to the present day. The pervasiveness of the Roman church’s imagery extends beyond its church walls into the public domain, where it populates every sphere of life. “Nevertheless, the diversity of expression in contemporary art has opened up new hermeneutical fields of possibility for expression, where the boundary between sacred and profane art does not always have clear limits.”40
[20] Granados’ discussion includes a brief historical survey of the Protestant and evangelical churches of the Americas; North, Central, and South America, which are heir to “visual indifference.”41 In the case of Latin America, the visual indifference in these churches is also partly due to their reaction against the all-pervasive Counter-Reformation images of the Roman Catholic church. Granados’ unique contribution to the discussion on communicating the Gospel through the visual arts focuses on the contemporary situation in the Protestant and evangelical churches in Latin America. Not having claimed the legacy of Luther which supports a responsible use of visual arts in the Church, these churches are instead spiritual heirs to the iconoclasm of the European Protestant Reformation. Granados comments on this situation, saying on the one hand,
What is visual continues being illustrative and pedagogical and exaggeratedly figurative. Visual impoverishment reaches the extreme [situation] of devaluation, or in the best of cases, of an indifference to art within and outside the church.42
On the other hand, Granados says,
From an iconoclastic tradition, it is so difficult to imagine an altarpiece like the one that exists in the city of Wittenberg with Luther, Melanchthon, and other characters of daily life on an altar where God is worshiped. It is as difficult as being able to determine what type of influences can make a community change its visual habits and, without falling into worship or fetishism, accept art not merely as a didactic, controversial, or illustrative medium, but as a spiritual medium that empowers the Christian commitment, whatever this may be.43
[21] The fundamental issue in these statements can challenge our parish communities in North America with similar concerns. Given Luther’s legacy and our commitment to the principle of the Reformation, I believe that it is possible for our Lutheran churches to accept and promote visual art as a spiritual medium of God’s grace, which bears witness to the truth, empowering the Christian commitment to live faithfully.44 As we have witnessed, “for Luther images are also a part of the mediations of God.”45 Where does this understanding lead us?
Conclusion
[22] Luther’s Gospel awakening had important ethical implications. His discernment of the central message of the Gospel called on his conscience to take action and, in doing so, he risked his life for the sake of the Gospel. We have found that after his stand at the Diet of Worms, the iconoclastic controversy set off a series of events in Wittenberg that hit home for Luther, moving him to leave the safety of the Wartburg Castle and head back to Wittenberg, where he confronted the same followers who had participated in the iconoclastic events at his local parish church. We discovered that back in Wittenberg he faced his followers by preaching a series of eight sermons that formulated his “earliest serious and systematic treatment” of religious art. Once home, Luther followed up by making it clear that images of the Gospel have the character of proclamation, which ought to teach and enlighten the mind; therefore such images ought to be supported. He followed through in his position on the visual arts with his actions.
[23] Our focus has driven us to address the question of the ethical implications of Luther’s position on the Gospel. In our search to address this question within the context of the visual arts and the life of faith, we have followed the way in which Martin Luther’s rediscovery of the central message of the Gospel led him to confront the Church of Rome, and in so doing moved him to turn to the visual arts as the Gospel’s partner in mission. We have seen how in his defense of the Gospel, Luther embraced the visual arts, with purpose and conviction, in its service to the cause of the Reformation. In summary, we have learned that Luther’s actions redefined the significance of the visual arts for the life of the Church, transforming what was the former Roman Church’s medium of idolatry into a true servant of the Gospel, and thus of the Reformation. As we meet the present challenge of the Lutheran Church in North, Central, and South America, we too are called to embrace a responsible use of the visual arts in the Church, for the sake of the ages and to the glory of God. To meet this challenge, we must begin by educating ourselves and our congregations on the visual arts and their service to the Church throughout the ages, beginning with the early Christian Church, through the Church of the Reformation, to our present-day Church. Then, we must continue to incorporate and reflect on the visual arts in our local parish churches and in our parochial schools, thus following through with Martin Luther’s commitment to supporting the Church’s proclamation through the visual arts. Dürer’s Praying Hands continue to uphold the faith.
NOTES
1 Dietrich Steinwede, Reformation: A Picture Story of Martin Luther, trans. Edward A. Cooperwriter (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1983), 30.
2 John W. Cook, “Picturing Theology: Martin Luther and Lucas Cranach,” in Art and Religion: Faith, Form and Reform, 1984 Paine Lectures in Religion, ed. Osmund Overby (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri-Columbia, 1986), 24. The major German artists of the Reformation were Lucas Cranach the Elder, Hans Holbein, and Albrecht Dürer.
3 Cook, ibid., 24-25.
4 Carl Christensen, Art and the Reformation in Germany (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, Wayne State University Press, 1979), 47.
5 Martin Luther, Against the Heavenly Prophets in the Matter of Images and Sacraments (1525), in Luther’s Works: Church and Ministry II, vol. 40, ed. Conrad Bergendoff (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1958), 73-223.
6 Cook, op. cit., 25.
7 Palma Martínez-Burgos García, “El arte frente a la Europa de las religiones” [“Art in the Presence of the Europe of the Religions,” in Los Realismos en el Arte Barroco [The Realisms in Baroque Art] (Madrid, Spain: Editorial Universitaria Ramón Areces, 2016), 18, my translation.
8 Martínez-Burgos García, ibid., 23, my translation.
9 ibid, 18, my translation.
10 ibid., 25, my translation.
11 Jerónimo Granados, “Lutero y el arte: una perspective latinoamericana” [“Luther and Art: a Latin American Perspective,”] in Dropbox – Cuadernos de Teología, vol. 22. 2003. 314, my translation. http://www.giepra.com.ar/1862/cuadernos-de-teologia-coleccion-completa-para-descargar (accessed September 17, 2017).
12 Cook, op. cit., 39.
13 Granados, op. cit., 315, my translation.
14 Luther, Luther’s Works, vol. 40, 88.
15 Luther, ibid., vol. 40, 99.
16 Martínez-Burgos García, op. cit., 27, my translation.
17 ibid.
18 Christensen, op. cit.,, 123.
19 Cook, op. cit., 26.
20 Martin Luther, Luther’s Works: Devotional Writings II, vol. 43, ed. Gustav K. Wienke (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1968), 43.
21 ibid., 26.
22 Werner Shade, Cranach: A Family of Master Painters, trans. Helen Sebba (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1980), 30 f.
23 Cook, op. cit., 27.
24 ibid., 35.
25 The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. “Artist, businessman and friend of Luther.” lutheranreformation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/ref500-Cranach_Insert.pdf (accessed September 17, 2017).
26 Cook, op. cit., 26.
27 Santiago Velázquez, “Lutero, 500 años de Reforma” [“Luther, 500 Years of Reformation,”] in HUFFPOST. 4, my translation. www.huffingtonpost.es/santiago-velazquez/lutero-500anos-de-reforma_a_22016843/ (accessed September 17, 2017).
28 Velázquez, ibid., 4, my translation.
29 ibid., 4, my translation.
30 Martínez-Burgos García, op. cit., 27, my translation.
31 Irving Hexam and Lothar Henry Köpe, The Christian Travelers Guide to Germany (Grand Rapids, MI: ZondervanPublishingHouse, 2001), 220-221.
32 The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. “Artista, comerciante y amigo de Lutero” [“Artist, businessman and friend of Luther,”] trans. Antonio Schimpf; my translation from Spanish. lutheranreformation.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/ref500-Cranach_Handout_Spanish.pdf
33 Cook, op. cit., 39.
34 Oskar Bätschmann and Pascal Griener, Hans Holbein (London: Reaktion Books, 1997), 116; Derek Wilson, Hans Holbein: Portrait of an Unknown Man (London: Pimlico, Revised Edition, 2006), 68.
35 John North, The Ambassadors’ Secret: Holbein and the World of the Renaissance (London: Phoenix, 2004), 24.
36 Diana Severance, Ken Curtis, Beth Johnson, and Ann T. Snyder, “Albrech Dürer, Reformation Media Man,” in Christian History Institute’s Glimpses of people, events, life and faith from the Church Across the Ages, issue #125 (Worcester, PA: Christian History Institute, 2000), 3.
37 Severance, et. al., ibid., 2.
38 ibid., 3.
39 Granados, op. cit., my translation.
40 Granados, ibid., 317, my translation.
41 ibid., 317, my translation.
42 ibid., 318, my translation.
43 ibid., 318-319, my translation.
44 An example of this possibility is available at Saint Peter’s Church in New York City. Saint Peter’s Church features a rotating display of contemporary art in its Narthex and Living Room Galleries, and on its Media Gallery, which can be viewed at www.saintpeters.org/events/library/art/.
45 Granados, op. cit., 315, my translation.
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Suzanne E. Hoeferkamp Segovia is a systematic theologian and visual artist from Latin America.